1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flow description document processing method, apparatus, and program.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a technique of reading a structured document which describes a WEB service flow for sequentially executing WEB services, and sequentially executing WEB services in accordance with the description contents. The WEB service flow is described in accordance with, e.g., WSBPEL (WEB Service Business Process Execution Language).
An engine which reads a WEB service flow description document and sequentially executes WEB services in accordance with the description contents generally runs on a resource-rich personal computer or server.
How to efficiently use a plurality of flow descriptions or flow definitions to execute a flow has been studied.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-302002 discloses an integrated workflow definition/execution method capable of listing cooperative work operations, and reusing a workflow definition between a plurality of workflow management systems which execute the same work. According to the method in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-302002, the user selects and extracts a necessary definition part from a workflow definition given for each workflow management system. Extracted definitions are combined to newly generate a workflow definition, and the workflow definition is read to execute the flow.
U.S. Publication No. 2005/0198639 discloses a method of determining a similar process from the process definitions of a plurality of workflows, and merging or reconfiguring processes into one workflow while internally adding conditional branches.
Assume that an engine for reading a WEB service flow description document and sequentially executing WEB services in accordance with the description contents is installed and activated in a device poor in resource (e.g., a memory). In this case, the number of registrable WEB service flow description documents is further limited.